thod was experienced by the failing of one of the piers of Westminfter Bridge, before it was finished.

The following fection on the preparing of timber, will not only ferve as a specimen of the performance, but is of fuch extenfive application as to furnish information for land as well as water service:

We have (in Ireland) very little timber now of the produce of this kingdom of any kind, but large quantities of both oak and fir imported; on which two forts, 1 fhall make a few remarks.

Oak is generally allowed to endure all feafons and weathers,, better than any other fort of timber, and fome people are of opinion, that it is the best of all others in water. I know the pier or piles, which we began to run out in this harbour about the year 1728, have long fince fufficiently proved, that it was not by any means adequate to that purpofe, though I do believe, that there is not any country that produces better oak timber than ours, notwithstanding thofe piles rotted and decayed in a very short time; but whether that was owing to the nature of that particular timber, or to any thing peculiar to our harbour, I know not, but it is reported there is a fort of worms that either breed in or are nourished in those piles, that totally destroy them.

There are, indeed, feveral methods that have been made ufe of to preferve timber. Sir Hugh Platt informs us, that the Venetians make ufe of one, which feems very rational, viz. to burn and fcorch their timber in a flaming fire, continually turning it round with an engine, till it has got a hard black crufty coal upon it.-Others inform us, that the Dutch preferve their gates, portcullis's, drawbridges, fluices, &c. by coating them over with a mixture of pitch and tar, whercon they strew fmall pieces of cockle and other fhells, beaten almost to powder and mixed with fea fand, which incrufts and arms it wonderfully against all affaults of wind or weather; but for my own part, I conclude, that the Venetian method is preferable, because, I believe, it is the fap that is either in oak or fir, that is the principal cause of their decaying fo foon. Besides, that fap probably breeds and nourishes the worms that are natural to it, but there are not any worms peculiar to the water that I have ever heard of.

• Worms generally breed in the fap of all kinds of building timbers, and have a powerful effect on them, either without or within, doors; and all old and dry foft woods breed them in great abundance, just as mites are bred in cheese; and fome of thefe worms are a quarter of an inch in length, and near a tenth of an inch in thicknefs; and in very footy old cabbins where foft woods are generally made use of, they are to be found in great abundance. For thefe reafons, you ought to be exceeding careful how you make use of any fort of fappy timber, but particularly in all works that ftand the weather, for the fap is of a corrofive nature, and for that reafon ought not to be made ufe of, especially before it is a little feafoned in any work that requires to be durable.

I know there are carpenters who pretend it is necessary to paint their work directly, and I admit that in fome cafes it may; but it

ought

4

ought to be done with judgment, and not merely to varnish over and hide the imperfections of their work. As the prefervation of timber is a fubject fuitable to our prefent purpose, I advise you never to paint either green or fappy timber of any kind.

When I was building the manfion-house of Ramsfort, one day after dinner, Mr. Ram obferved to his company, that he had fome time ago, cut up fome of his own fir timber into fcantling, out of which he had a great number of field-gates made, and that feveral of them that had been hung up near his houfe, he had painted immediately, but thofe that were at a distance through feveral parts of his extensive demefne, were not painted; that those which were painted were all quite rotten, but thofe that were not painted continued firm. The company feemed furprized at this information, and Mr. Ram enquiring of me the caufe of this apparent phænomenon, I readily answered, that the painting of the fappy wood, encrufted and confined the fap, and prevented its being exhausted by the fun and weather, and being continued within it, preyed upon, putrified, and destroyed the hearty found wood. As to the wood that had not been painted, the fun and weather consumed and exhausted its fap, and thereby rendered it of a proper confiftence, and made it well feasoned. It is for this reafon I advise against painting, or otherwise encrufting fappy green wood, unless you have fome very powerful reafons for it.

I once happened in company with a very ingenious gentleman, one Mr. Smith, who was fo kind as to communicate a fecret to me, which ftruck me greatly, and I inftantly put it in practice, and am now convinced it is an excellent method to make red fir timber near as durable as oak, i. e. after your work is tried up or even put together, lay it on the ground with ftones or bricks under it to about a foot high, and burn wood (which is the best firing for that purpofe) under it, till you thoroughly heat and even fcorch it all over, then, whilft the wood is hot, rub it over plentifully with linfeedoil and tar in equal parts, and well boiled together, and let it be kept boiling whilt you are using it; and this will immediately ftrike and link (if the wood be tolerably feafoned) one inch or more into the wood, clofe all the pores, and make it become exceeding hard and durable, either under or over water; and if there fhould be any fappy parts in it, they will receive fuch benefit by the fire and heat of this natural and penetrating liquid, that they will also thereby become exceeding durable. Good red fir prepared after this manner, will, for many ufes, laft as long, if not longer, even than oak timber, especially in water; and if good fir timber is conftantly kept in water, it will keep fresh and found much longer than oak.

⚫ I have often seen flating and plattering laths, clove out of bog oak and bog fir; in cleaving the fir laths, I frequently observed the turpentine as fresh and firm in it as if it were perfect rofin; and I have heard of the fplinters of this wood being used not only for torches, but by poor people fometimes as candles. In the butt of a clean trunk of a bog fir-tree, it will fplit thin and tough like whalebone. It is a generally received notion that the timber trees which are found in fuch abundance in fome of our bogs, have lain there

ever fince the great deluge, but be that as it may, the bog oak timber is always found to be frufhey, dozed, and short grained, and not near fo found as the fir timber, though both taken up at the fame time out of the fame bog. Hence I think we may fafely conclude, that red fir timber is exceeding durable, and confequently unexceptionable as to our prefent purpose, provided it be kept entirely under water; therefore, let us determine to make our coffers of good found red fir timber, and keep them under water as much as we conveniently can.'

In treating of light-houfes, Mr. Semple alfo recommends lamps inftead of coal fires; only he directs the placing them behind glafs femi-globes, whereas at Liverpool we find they stand before glafs or metal reflectors *.

• See Hutchinson's Practical Seamanship in the preceding Article."

N.

ART. VI. Know your own Mind: A Comedy, performed at the Theatre Royal, in Covent-Garden. Written by Arthur Murphy, Elgit. 8vo. 1 s. 6 d. Becket. 1778.

A

LTHOUGH this Comedy is founded on the Irrefolu of Deftouches, it is by no means to be accounted a tranflation, or to be ranked among the fervile imitations of the French drama. An original vein of English humour animates the dialogue; and characters of our own growth are happily introduced, and faithfully delineated, particularly thofe of Mifs Neville and Dafhwould. The laft indeed is faid to have been drawn after the life, and to exhibit the features of the deceased Ariftophanes of the Haymarket. How far this idea is juft, his numerous acquaintance may partly determine from the following fpecimen of the dialogue:

Enter Lady BELL, DASHWOULD, and MALVIL.

Lady BELL. Mr. Dafhwould, do you think I'll bear this? What liberty will you take next? You think, because I laugh, that I am not offended.-Aunt, I received a letter, and he has attempted to fnatch it from me.

DASH. Why it brings a little cargo of ridicule from the country, and my friend Malvil fees no joke in it.

MAL. When my friend's name is brought in question, Sir

Lady BELL. It is diverting notwithstanding -Aunt, what do you think? My coufin Cynthia, you know, was to be married to Sir George Squanderstock; her mother oppofed it, and broke off the match, and now it's come out, that he was all the time the clandeftine rival of her own daughter.

MILLAMOUR. Not inapplicable to the prefent bufinefs. (afide) Mrs. BROM. Go, you giddy girl, no fuch thing!

MIL. (afide) She charms by her very faults.

+ The Author's name is omitted in the title, but we obferved it in the news-paper advertisements.

Sir

ג

Sir HAR. (goes up to BYGROVE) And Dashwould has been` say.› ing-

BYG. Po! repeat none of his fayings to me.

Lady BELL. Did you fay any thing, Mr. Dafhwould? What was it ?

DASH. Oh! nothing. Sir George Squanderftock is my very good friend.

MAL. And for that reafon you might spare him. No man is without his faults..

DASH. Ay, allow him faults, out of tenderness.

BYG. Sir George is a valuable man, Sir, and represents his county to great advantage.

DASH. He does fq; takes a world of pains; nothing can escape Kim; Manilla ranfom not paid; there must be a motion about that matter: he knots his handkerchief to remember it.-Scarcity of corn! another knot-triennial parliaments-(knots) Juries judges of law as well as fact (knots) national debt (knots) bail in criminal cafes (knots) and fo on he goes, till his handkerchief is twifted into queftions of flate; the liberties and fortunes of all posterity dangling like a bede roll; he puts it in his pocket, drives to the gaming table, and the next morning his handkerchief goes to the wash, and his country and the minority are both left in the fuds.

Lady BELL. What a defcription!

Sir HAR. Hey! lively Lady Bell!

} both laugh.

MIL. Ho! ho! I thank you, Dahwould.

Mrs. BROM. (afide to Millamour) How can you encourage him? Let us leave 'em to themselves.

MAL. You fee, Mr. Bygrove.

BYG. Ay! thus he gets a story to graft his malice upon, and then he fets the table in a roar at the next tavern.

Sir HAR. Never be out of humour with Dafhwould, Mr. By. grove; he keeps me alive; he has been exhibiting pictures of this fort all the morning, as we rambled about the town.

DASH. Oh! no; no pictures; I have fhewn him real life.

Sir HAR. Very true, Dashwould: and now mind him: he will touch them off to the life for you..

Mrs. BROM. Millamour fo clofe with Lady Bell! the forward importunity of that girl. (afide, and goes to Millamour.)

DASH. There is pofitively no fuch thing as going about this town, without feeing enough to fplit your fides with laughing. We called upon my friend Sir Volatile Vainlove: he, you know, fhines in all polite affemblies, and is, if you believe himself, of the first charac-. ter for intrigue. We found him drinking Valerian tea for his breakfaft, and putting on falfe calves.

Sir HAR. And the confufion he was in, when we entered the room!

DASH. In the next ftreet, we found Jack Spinbrain, a celebrated poet, with a kept miftrefs at his elbow, writing lampoons for the news-paper; one moment murdering the reputation of his neighbours, and the next a fuicide of his own. We faw a young heir, not yet of age, granting annuity bonds, and five Jews and three

Chriflians,

1

Christians, duped by their avarice to lend money upon them. A lawyer

Sir HAR. Hear, hear; it is all true. I was with him.

DASH. A lawyer taking notes upon Shakespeare: a deaf Nabob ravished with mufic, and a blind one buying pictures. Men without talents, rifing to preferment, and real genius going to a jail.An officer in a marching regiment with a black eye, and a French hair dreffer wounded in the sword arm.

Sir HAR. Oh! ho! ho! by this light I can vouch for every word. BYG. Go on, Sir Harry, ape your friend in all his follies; be the nimble marmozet; grin at his tricks, and try to play them over again yourself.

Sir HAR. Well now, that is too fevere: Dafhwould, defend me from his wit. You know I hoard up all your good things.

DASH. You never pay me in my own coin, Sir Harry: try now; who knows but you will fay fomething?

MAL. Friend or foe it is all alike.

Lady BEL. (coming forward) And where is the mighty harm? I like pulling to pieces of all things.

MIL. (following Lady BELL.) To be fure it is the life of converfation. Does your Ladyfhip know Sir George Squanderftock's fifter?

Lady BELL. I have seen her.

MIL. She is a politician in petticoats; a fierce republican; fhe talks of the dagger of Brutus, while the fettles a pin in her tucker; and fays more about fhip-money, than pin-money.

BYG. And now you must turn buffoon?.

DASH. I know the lady; fhe fcolds at the loyalifts, goffips against the act of fettlement, and has the fidgets for Magna Charta.

MIL. She encourages a wrinkle against bribery; flirts her fan at the ministry, and bites her lips at taxes, and a standing army. MAL. Mr. BYGROVE, will you bear all this?

Enter Mifs NEVILLE, and whispers Mrs. BROMLEY. Mrs. BROM. Very well, Neville, I'll come presently.

[Exit Mifs NEVILLE. MAL. (looking at Mifs NEVILLE.) I shall ftay no longer. Mr. Bygrove, will you walk?

[Exit.

BYG. No, Sir, I fhall not leave the enemy in this room behind me: a bad tranflator of an ancient poet, is not fo fure to deface his original, as his licentious ftrain to difparage every character.

DASH. Sir Harry, he will neither give, nor take a joke.

Sir HAR. No, I told you fo.

BYG. Let me tell you once for all, Sir

DASH. I wish you would.

BYG. Why interrupt? Do you know what I was going to say? DASH. No, do you?

MIL. I'lldeave 'em all to themselves.

) Mrs. BROM. (afide) Millamour gone!

[Steals out. [Exit.

BYG. Let me tell you, Sir, with all your flashes of wit, you will And that you have been playing with an edge-tool at laft. And what does this mighty wit amount to? The wit in vogue, exposes

one